Do you think it's okay to tickle someone without their consent?

[Answered on Quora.com by Amy Renfrew]

No, do not touch people without their consent. The only time it is okay to touch someone without getting their explicit consent would be in very limited emergency situations.

I will give you an example from my own life. I was sitting outside on a lovely day having a drink and my neighbour’s three year old kid ran into the street in front of my house and there was a vehicle coming around the corner that didn’t see him. I jumped up, ran, made a bunch of noise and picked the little guy up and carried him home. The car stopped, the kiddo was not hit and everyone was fine.

The little fella wasn’t happy I scooped him up, I think I startled him a bit. There was a little bit of crying. I would never have picked him up under another situation without making sure he wanted to be picked up. I know this kid pretty well, we have been neighbours his whole life. He comes over every morning and plays with my dog before school (this happened a couple of years ago). He has sat on my lap a couple of times when over visiting with his mom when I showed him some stuff on my phone.

Tickling someone against their will could create any number of problems, even if your intention is just to have a bit of fun. A lot of people detest being tickled, and a lot of people have issues where they have been non-consensually touched and tickling them might very well trigger those memories. We often have very little knowledge about what is going on with other people, so we should not be forcing ourselves into their personal space regardless of intention. Again, the only reason to do this is in order to save life or limb.